| 270 CONSTITUTION AND CHARACTER
tions of their race, from their earliest arrival upon
these shores to the present time.
THE TWO GREAT MEANS OF CIVILIZATION.
But whatever we may think of the intellectual
inferiority of the Indian race, the slowness of their
progress in the arts of life was not due wholly to
that cause. There are two great essential elements
without which civilization can never make
any rapid progress, or attain to any great height,
in any nation. These two elements are iron, and
the art of writing. With the possession of iron to
make implements and tools, one man, it is found;
can produce the food of ten, thus leaving the other
four of the half of the community that we may
suppose to be able-bodied, to be employed in other
occupations. It is in consequence of this release
of so large a portion of the community from the
labor of procuring food, through the aid afforded
by iron, that arts and inventions arise. Whereas
without iron, it requires five men to produce the
food of ten, and the other five consist of the very
young, the very old, the sick and the infirm. So
that, without iron, nearly the whole available
strength of the community is required for the
production of food, the surplus that remains being
barely sufficient to provide, in the simplest possible
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